


from the fullness of the heart,

by Captain_Hughes_ZU



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, bokuto being a drama queen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-23 23:10:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7483674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captain_Hughes_ZU/pseuds/Captain_Hughes_ZU
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the mouth speaks.</p>
<p>The story of a rare occasion in which Akaashi was not able to read Bokuto like a book.</p>
            </blockquote>





	from the fullness of the heart,

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nearlyfiction](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nearlyfiction/gifts).



> This is my assignment for the HQ Holidays Exchange this year! I hope you all enjoy it, especially the recipient, nearlyfiction.
> 
> I had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope that it's what you were looking for! ((Bokuto was so fun to write, and I hope I managed to capture Akaashi's attitude, haha.))

Akaashi had once tried to make a correlation between how loud people were and how honest they could be with their thoughts.

This was based mostly upon Bokuto and Kenma. The former of the two favoured operating on a minimal decimal level to rival a small jet and never hesitated to make his opinions known regardless of how they affected others. Meanwhile, Kenma preferred to stick to a mumble and tended to keep to himself.

Akaashi had scrapped the Bokuto-Kenma Openness spectrum a while later, after a few new findings had presented themselves. It turned out Kenma was the type of person who could be brutally honest, in his own quiet way. (“Lev, please stop wearing those yellow earmuffs everywhere. They’re actually really hideous.”)

In Bokuto’s case, there was the event that had transpired in the wake of his high school graduation.

It had been a time of mixed emotions for the whole team. Of course they were all proud of their upperclassmen for completing their schooling and moving on with their lives. It was an achievement, a milestone, a turning point. But it was also meant the restructuring of the team, the loss of their strongest players and a bittersweet farewell for friends who had shared the last few years fighting together.

It was a time when emotions shone through raw and pure, and would have been a great opportunity for Akaashi to gather facts for his observation. However, it had completely slipped from his mind along with much else. He was too caught up in sorting out his own feelings, let alone anyone else’s.

The graduating third years had just about no free time on their hands nowadays, between exams and applications and family and being tossed between each of their teammates who wanted to spend as much time together as possible before they left.

Akaashi had stepped back during this, trying to ease pressure a little. He offered a hand when needed and left the team to its duties.

It was strange to him at the time, but Bokuto also seemed to have withdrawn through this period. They hadn’t shared as many conversations, and the ace had stopped traipsing around after his setter at every opportunity. They still got together to study, although this seemed to happen more at school and less at each other’s houses.

Though Bokuto did insist on attending every single training session right up until the day he was forcibly removed from the school campus.

Akaashi had assumed that Bokuto was going through some bizarre guilt complex about not having been the best ace in all known history of the Earth or something. Turns out, he was quite far from the mark, as he had been with his openness theory.

* * *

 

“Keiji! Can I come in?”

Akaashi glanced up from his homework and towards his bedroom door. It was his youngest brother’s voice.

“Sure. What is it, Michi?” He closed his textbook and spun in his seat as the boy slid open the door and hopped inside.

“When’s Bokuto gonna come around again?” Michi asked curiously, trotting over to his brother’s desk and inspecting his books. “He said he was gonna teach me his best spike if I got tall enough, and I grew two centimetres since last time.”

Michi was in his final year of primary school, and was already a volleyball fanatic. He hoped to be on the starting line-up all through middle school, hence pestered Bokuto to teach him whenever he came over.

Akaashi hadn’t stopped to wonder why his brother preferred Bokuto’s teaching over his own. Both his younger brothers were wildly energetic like the ace, so they probably learned more from his over-the-top tutoring than Akaashi’s calm strategies.

He had to thank the pair though. It was probably all his experience handling their exploits that had prepared him to deal with Bokuto.

“I don’t know when he’ll be coming over,” he answered, frowning as Michi started flicking through the pages on his desk. “Bokuto has a lot to do now because he’s graduating. And he’s going to be in university next year, so he’ll be even busier.”

“So he’s going to a different school, like me?” Michi enquired, pouting when Akaashi slid his textbooks out of reach.

“Yes. He is.”

“Are you going to miss him?”

Akaashi paused. His brother’s earnest eyes bored into him and he sighed. “Parts of him, I suppose.”

“What d’you mean by that?”

_He’s stressful. When he’s gone, I won’t have to deal with the ridiculous ups and downs of his everyday life anymore. For example, lunchtime._

_Asked for no pickles in his bento but got them anyway. Dejected mode. Konoha wants to trade lunches. Hyper mode. Konoha’s lunch is entirely konomon (why is this?). Dejected mode._

_Solution; Bokuto receives the nanohana I had been saving for today and I end up with a box full of pickled radishes._

_I worry for whomever is forced to deal with him in university, but I’ll be glad to be rid of those things._

_And yet…_

The setter felt a little twang of sadness at the prospect of having lunch without the constant company of Bokuto’s toddler-like presence. Or going without hearing his name called out from halfway across the school every morning. Or not having to correct all those amusing mistakes each day.

Most of all, he’d miss the little buzz of happiness he felt whenever Bokuto shook out of his dejected mode during a match. He’d never say it, but he especially loved it when the ace was drawn out of his sulking and back towards Akaashi’s sets.

It always made him feel a little bit pleased, knowing that he had the ability to make Bokuto happy.

(Time elapsed; 1.34 seconds.)

Akaashi found himself about to answer his brother’s question, but snapped his mouth shut. “Don’t you have a room to be cleaning, Michi?”

“Aw, no fair! I cleaned it last week!”

“And it already looks like a bombsite again,” he chided, and pointed towards the door. “Now stop putting it off and let me study.”

“Fine,” whined Michi, trudging out of the room.

Once he was gone, Akaashi folded his arms on his desk and sighed again. What was he getting upset about? Bokuto was a good friend of his so naturally it would hurt to see him go, but it wasn’t like they would never meet each other again. It just wouldn’t happen constantly.

Even so…

The thought of not seeing Bokuto’s alternating grins and pouts every day shouldn’t make Akaashi feel as lonely as it did.

* * *

 

Some number of days later was the volleyball club’s farewell party.

This year, the group had decided the venue would be Bokuto’s favourite barbecue joint. It was close to the school, making it an accessible meeting point for the members who had decided to attend. Bokuto himself was thrilled with the idea and began rattling off his menu recommendations to anyone who would listen.

“It’s seriously a great place,” he rambled as the team began to split up and head home after practise. “I’m sure you’ll all love it! I mean, I really hope so.” He closed his eyes, still talking, and didn’t notice that everyone had already walked off and left him to his blabbering.

“The meat is excellent! And it’s not too expensive either! It’s honestly a wonder that customers don’t flock to it. I guess I’m just really good at finding hip and trendy places that others can’t see, you know?”

Everyone, excepting Akaashi.

When Bokuto finally took a look at his surroundings, he realised the two of them were standing by themselves outside the gym in the darkening evening.

Akaashi was about to whip out a dry line in response to the ‘hip and trendy’ statement, but the ace jumped in first.

“Whoa. Akaashi.” He laughed sheepishly. “I didn’t know you were… Everyone already… I thought they were still listening.”

The setter raised an eyebrow. “Well, they can probably already recite the unabridged history of this barbecue joint and the life stories of its proprietors by now, given that you talked nonstop about it the whole way through practise.”

“Oh, um, yeah.” Bokuto sounded somewhat abashed, turning his head downwards and fidgeting with his backpack straps. He mumbled, “Whoops.”

Something about seeing the ace take that pose and tone of voice set off warning bells in Akaashi’s head. He seemed unusually self-conscious. The whole ‘ignore Bokuto until he _finally_ stops talking’ shtick happened without end in the club, and it hadn’t bothered the endlessly egocentric ace before now.

Additionally, Bokuto’s embarrassment usually manifested in a loud defensive cry and an overuse of arm motions, not this quiet, reproached attitude.

Akaashi frowned. This definitely wasn’t in keeping with his observations.

“Bokuto, what—”

“I’ll see you at school tomorrow, Akaashi!” the ace blurted, shrugging his backpack and spinning on his heel. “Thanks for setting to me! Good evening, and rest well! Sweet dreams!”

With that, he sprinted towards the school gate, stumbling on the pavement and disappearing into the streets.

Akaashi’s frown deepened further and he touched a hand to his chin. Definitely strange, even for Bokuto. What was he hiding?

_Well, there’s no use trying to figure it out. Bokuto’s behaviour is often something beyond the comprehension of normal people_ , he told himself, though that didn’t stop him from pondering.

“I wonder if he realises tomorrow is a Saturday.”

* * *

 

All went swimmingly at the barbecue joint.

There was much reminiscing to be done, which involved no small amounts of both laughter and tears. All of the starting line-up plus a few of the reserves had managed to make it, and the whole group sat crushed into one booth to quarrel over the veritable banquet of food that laid before them.

Akaashi normally preferred calmer meet-ups, places where one didn’t need to shout over five other voices to talk to the next person over. He’d discovered that was generally impossible when those taking part in the meeting were members of the Fukurodani volleyball club.

Still, this was nice.

He was crushed up in between Bokuto and Komi, his sides pressed flush against his teammates’ and their arms close enough to bump every time they reached for food at the same time. Even though breathing space was almost dangerously limited and what seemed like a small five-course meal had been deposited over Akaashi’s clothes, he found himself smiling.

He nodded as Konoha shouted across the table to get his attention, complied when Komi started yawning and resting his head on Akaashi’s shoulder. Sarukui’s smirk curved upwards as he held up his phone to snap a picture of his drowsy classmate. Akaashi, normally opposed to photographs, went as far as to hold out two fingers in a quiet victory sign.

Of course, Bokuto noticed and whipped out his own phone. In an instant, the remaining food was forgotten in favour of any team members with camera phones snapping photographs of their teammates pulling faces and posing. Several featured Komi with various food items stacked on his face.

Akaashi went along with them, carefully plucking his own phone from his pocket and starting up a video to capture his teammates’ shenanigans. He couldn’t help laughing at the audio that was being captured;

“ _Hey, hey, where’s that piece of barbecue pork I was saving? Washio, you did_ not!”

“ _Someone put this boiled cabbage on Komi’s cheek!_ ”

“ _Akaashi, hot damn! Look here with that smile, give me a nice picture of your handsome face to hang in my dorm! …And Bokuto can be in it too, I guess._ ”

“ _Oi! Rude! And you, give my pork back, Washio!_ ”

“… _Too late._ ”

Eventually Komi was roused by the floppy vegetables being piled on his ear, and began pelting Konoha and Sarukui with the crunchy tails of the fried prawns he’d just eaten.

Akaashi struggled to maintain his composure as he watched the third years pelt each other with tiny pieces of food. He would have to apologise to the proprietors after leaving. Onaga looked on in dismay, probably thinking of how childish his upperclassmen’s food wastage was.

The volume in the booth was reaching ridiculous levels, even enough to drown out the loud music of the restaurant. Akaashi’s ears weren’t benefitting from this fact, and he wouldn’t be surprised if they were ringing all day tomorrow.

“…kaashi!” Konoha was calling something to him, but he could barely hear it. “Don’t…get…owner!” He burst into laughter.

Akaashi just smiled and nodded, having no idea what his teammate was saying.

In the chaos, Bokuto sidled closer to Akaashi and held his phone in front of the two. A smartphone with a painful yellow cover and a crack running through the screen had the inside camera active, reflecting the pair’s faces. Bokuto was speaking quietly for once, hard to hear over the laughter and shouting of the booth. Distracted, Akaashi abandoned his video chronicling and drew his phone into his chest.

“Listen…I just…me…fun…last…really happy…thanks…something…you,” Bokuto was mumbling, his smile flickering on and off.

“What?!” Akaashi called back, only catching a few words despite Bokuto being right next to him. “What are you trying to say?!”

“Smile!” was all he got in reply, and the flash of the phone camera was bright enough to blind him.

It was a night Akaashi would never forget, especially after the events that ensued over the following days.

* * *

 

That night of barbecue had been highly emotional, but it was only a kick-starter for what was to come next.

It started with the video. Akaashi was lying awake at some ungodly hour of the morning, scrolling through the apps on his phone as he sometimes did to keep his fingers occupied when his head was busy.

He opened up his photo album and scrolled up to the top, mindlessly flicking over the images until he became so tired he could hardly distinguish one from the next. But something that made itself blatantly obvious to Akaashi even in his groggy state was the obscene amount of pictures pertaining to his captain.

A picture of his maths homework he’d sent to Bokuto for revision.

A recipe for barbecue marinade Bokuto had screenshotted and sent to him to try.

A selfie Bokuto had taken and set as Akaashi’s lock screen.

A photo of an advertisement for a new gym that Bokuto had made him take and promptly forgotten about.

Screenshot of a text from Bokuto. Picture of Bokuto’s gym bag in case it went missing. Photo of the side of Bokuto’s face. Bokuto, Bokuto, Bokuto.

How did he have so much of this piled up without even noticing?

The last item on his camera roll was the video from the graduation dinner almost a week ago now. He hadn’t played through the other videos on his phone, but it felt wrong to skip this one.

Akaashi reached out a clumsy hand for his earphones, swiping them off his bedside table and plugging them in. Once that had been sorted, he slid back into the comfy crevice of his bed and hit play.

_“Hey! Where’s that piece of barbecue pork I was saving?!”_

Akaashi winced and reduced the volume quickly. The microphone on this thing had some incredible recording capabilities.

_“Give me a nice picture of your handsome face to hang in my dorm!”_

Akaashi smiled softly, his face illuminated in the darkness of his room. The footage he’d captured included snippets of every member of the team, all acting as their regular, rambunctious selves and the setter wouldn’t have it any other way.

“ _Akaashi! Don’t forget to take one for the team and apologise to the owner!”_

The pixels on this screen contained so much that was dear to Akaashi, an amazing team that would never be the same again. He hadn’t meant to, but he had undoubtedly come to treasure every one of them, and although not all were leaving, it still felt like Akaashi’s whole world had gone with them.

“ _Selfie, Akaashi?_ ”

An amazing team, with a captain and ace to match.

The screen went dark as the camera’s range dropped to below the table. Akaashi closed his eyes and pressed the top of the phone to his forehead. He dug the pointed edge in as hard as he dared, keeping up the pressure until his arms shook.

He was going to miss Bokuto beyond words.

“ _Listen, I um… I just wanted to say something to you. Everything you’ve done has been so important to me, Akaashi_.”

The setter looked up, but the screen was still dark.

“ _You’ve been incredible, I mean it. I really hope you had fun this last year. Because you made me really happy. I can’t even say how much I’m going to miss you_.”

The phone had managed to capture the words Bokuto had yammered out too quietly towards the end of the night. Akaashi almost wished it hadn’t. They were so painful to hear.

“ _Thanks. Thank you so much, Akaashi. I don’t know what I’m going to do without you_.”

No wonder Bokuto’s voice hadn’t reached his ears that night. It was quiet because the ace had been struggling to maintain his ability to speak. Through the earphones, Akaashi could hear every waver and crack.

“ _There’s something I’ve been trying to say. For such a long time. I don’t care if you don’t hear me, I just want to say it to you before I go_.”

Akaashi let out a shaky breath, sliding his phone away from his forehead and down his cheek as if he were making a call. He drew it away to check the picture again, but the camera was still pointed down. There was a pixelated rainbow dotting the screen.

It took a moment for the fact to sink in that it was because he’d wiped tears over his phone, and a moment more for the fact to sink in that he was crying.

He sniffed, bit his lip and screwed his eyes shut. Tightening his grip on his phone, he prepared to hear what was likely Bokuto’s final goodbye as his teammate.

“ _I love you_.”

His fingers loosened immediately and his eyes shot open.

“ _What?!_ ”

‘I love you’, he’d said. But how? As a friend, a setter, a classmate? _Something else?_

_“What are you trying to say?”_

Akaashi threw himself out of bed, flicking his lamp on as his own voice shouted in his ears.

Light spilled into the room and his gaze fell immediately upon the mirror hanging on the wall opposite. He stared at his reflection, with its wide, red-rimmed eyes and a mark on his forehead about the shape of the corner of his phone. He blinked away the tears that remained, lost for looks and words and thoughts and breaths.

“ _Smile!”_ came Bokuto’s voice.

But Akaashi could hardly even close his mouth.

* * *

 

Bokuto’s alarm pulled him violently from a rather bizarre dream and he flapped out an arm in a wild grab for his phone. It was on the pillow next to his head, honking right in his ear to make sure he had absolutely no chance of being late for anything.

Not that he had to worry about arriving late to practise anymore… Wait, hold on, exactly! He wasn’t at school anymore. So why would he have set an alarm?

Confused now, he held the phone to his eyes and squinted against what felt like the beaming bright light of the love child of a thousand LED torches on steroids and twelve suns colliding.

It wasn’t his alarm at all. It was a call.

From Akaashi.

His chest tightened immediately out of a little bit of nerves and a little bit of excitement. Akaashi didn’t often call, and certainly not at this late hour.

His expression clouded a moment after realising that detail. What could have happened? Had something gone wrong?

Immediately concerned, Bokuto scrambled to pick up and smacked the phone to his ear with his heart pounding ten times faster than what he considered healthy.

“H-hello? Akaashi?” His voice was rough with sleep and he cleared his throat. “Is something wrong? It’s like, the middle of the night.”

There was silence from the other end of the line and Bokuto’s anxiety began to mount until it was a swirling pressure in his chest.

“Akaashi? Are you there?” he asked worriedly, noting that his pitch had shifted upwards into slightly panicky.

A trickle of relief ran through him at the sound of his setter’s voice, but his remaining worry shifted into a different type of fear.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Akaashi said softly, and Bokuto did not miss the accusatory note in his words. He sounded angry.

Not just irritated, or exasperated, or critical, snarky, sarcastic or snide.

Angry.

“T-tell you what?” he stammered, swallowing and sitting up properly. He crossed his legs on his mattress, pushing his dishevelled hair up off his forehead.

“Tell me to my face. Instead of all the beating round the bush and not spitting it out and then saying it under your breath so I’d never hear it.”

Bokuto felt like spears were striking him with every word that came through the phone’s speakers. He shivered and looked around his room in the dark, trying to find solace in any old object.

“I don’t know what you mean,” he got out, drumming his fingers on his knee agitatedly. “Whatever I did, whatever I said, I swear I didn’t mean it, Akaashi, I…”

_I would never do anything to hurt you. Or drive you away. I just want to be as near to you as possible. We’re so split up already, I would never do anything to push you any further from me._

“‘Didn’t mean it’, huh?” repeated Akaashi, and Bokuto felt ice flood his veins. “So those words you said to me during the barbecue that night, Bokuto? Did you mean that?”

“H-how did—”

“My phone was recording,” whispered Akaashi, and he sounded hollow.

For some reason, that sounded so much worse to Bokuto than even the anger had.

He couldn’t speak. It was taking all of his focus not to cry out in frustration with himself and throw his phone across the room. Or bang his head off the wall in dismay. Or just bury himself in his bedsheets and never come out again because _why, oh why, did he have to mess up each little thing every single time with his big giant mouth?_

“Did you mean it? Or did you just want to see how it felt to say them?” pressed Akaashi. “And if you did mean them, why didn’t you say anything sooner? You have to talk to me, Bokuto, because contrary to popular belief, I don’t always know what’s going on in your head.”

Bokuto sank his teeth into his hand, folding forward and burying his forehead in his sheets. _Why am I like this. Why do I do this. All of the time._

“Please _explain_ this to me, Bokuto,” Akaashi pleaded.

_He hates me. He hates what I am. I knew it, I knew he would, why was I so stupid?_

“I did, I did. I meant them,” was all he got out before he had to stop and take a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m sorry. So sorry. I shouldn’t have…shouldn’t have thought….”

His voice cracked perfectly and terribly on the last word. His throat was closing up but he balled himself tighter around his legs and shook his head.

Akaashi didn’t say anything.

_He hates me_ , Bokuto thought again, and then his eyes started stinging and he hiccupped and suddenly everything imploded.

“I’m sorry, Akaashi,” he choked out, grinding his forehead into his legs. “I didn’t mean to make you angry. That’s why I didn’t mean for you to hear. I just wanted to say something one time before I had to leave you and forget everything.”

“I figured you would say that,” came the quiet reply.

Bokuto was letting out ugly sobbing noises now. He would have punched himself in the face if he had the motivation.

“I don’t want you to forget me, Bokuto.”

The ace managed a bewildered ‘bwuh?’ sound.

“I’m not angry. You don’t have to say sorry.”

“B-bu-ut—”

“It should be me apologising. I didn’t mean to come across like this, I’m just…”

Bokuto sniffed loudly and sat up. His breathing was still ragged and hitched every so often.

“I’m just…”

“Confused?” tried Bokuto, but his voice wobbled and he wasn’t sure if Akaashi had understood him. “Scared? Disgusted?”

“No, no no no.” Akaashi hesitated. “Why did you never say anything?”

Bokuto stumbled over his words. He was blubbering, trying to change his ridiculous self into some form of coherency.

“I don’t know. I was scared. That you’d hate me. You always talk about how you’re not interested in girls or boys or sex or any of that, Akaashi, I thought you’d be disgusted with me, and…never wanna see me again.”

A beat.

“You’re a terrible people-reader, aren’t you, Bokuto?”

“Yeah,” Bokuto replied with a watery laugh. “W-wait, so are you telling me I was wrong?”

“ _So_ wrong.”

“In how? What wrong? I am?” he burst out, scrubbing his face.

Akaashi chuckled weakly. “I would never be angry at you for being what you are. Exasperated, sure, but not angry. You’re a perfect mess of a person, Bokuto.”

All the reply Bokuto could muster was unintelligible bashful spluttering.

“I didn’t mean to sound mad at you,” the setter continued. “You just shocked me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, I am.” Akaashi sighed, a regretful noise. “If I had noticed… You wouldn’t have had to deal with this the whole time ‘til now.”

“Akaashi—”

“If I’d noticed, we could have been closer a long time ago.”

“Wait, does that mean—” Bokuto cut himself off. “Are you saying you—I’m—Yes? What?”

“I’m saying I love you too, Bokuto. Or at least, I’m trying to.”

“Trying to say it or trying to love me?”

“Both, if you continue being as stupid about this as you started off.”

“I can’t help it.” Bokuto laughed, warmer this time, and rubbed his eyes again. “So, so let me get this straight, you’re saying you’re actually willing to date me? Me? You are?”

“I would have been willing to date you for months now, Bokuto.”

“Argh! And I stuffed around the whole way up ‘til graduation when I could have been with you the whole time!”

They continued their chatter for a while longer, and Bokuto gradually gained a better understanding of Akaashi’s pseudo anger at the start of his call.

Akaashi’s anger was more self-directed than anything else. Much to Bokuto’s pleasure, the setter prided himself on his ability to read his captain, and missing such a major detail had knocked him for a loop bigger than anything had before.

“I need to see you,” breathed Bokuto, rocking on his bed and hugging his legs with one arm.

“Bokuto, it's half past two in the morning.”

“But I need to.”

“Bokuto, you can’t come to my house at half past two in the morning.”

“It’s only a block away.”

“Bokuto, _no_.”

“I’m coming.”

“ _Bokuto_.”

“I’m putting on my jacket. Can you hear that? Zipper noise.”

“Bokuto, your parents will _execute_ you.”

“They’ll never know.”

_“I_ will execute you.”

“You won’t. Okay, I’m coming.”

“ _Bokuto!_ ”

* * *

 

Five minutes later, Bokuto was rooting around under Akaashi’s doormat for the spare key when he heard the _click_ of the latch being undone.

Akaashi pushed open the door ever so quietly, glancing over his shoulder all the while.

“You’re going to get yourself killed someday,” he hissed.

Bokuto just hummed, his face breaking into a beaming grin. The setter had stepped aside to beckon him inside, but he hadn’t moved from the doorstep.

Akaashi caught his drift fast enough, stepping forward a little bit and shrugging his arms.

Bokuto grinned wider, if possible, and bounded into him. He wrapped his arms around Akaashi’s chest in a bear grip and nuzzled his face into the setter’s shoulder.

Akaashi dropped his chin onto Bokuto’s messy, streaked hair and just breathed in his scent.

The aroma of guarana body wash and extra strength hair gel had a completely different meaning to him now, and he couldn’t help wanting to keep smelling it forever.

Bokuto kept hanging on as Akaashi shuffled backwards and locked up. The setter was dragged down onto the living room floor and Bokuto huddled up against him beside the sofa.

“I can’t believe I was so stupid,” mumbled Bokuto, resting his head on Akaashi’s shoulder and playing with his fingers. “All this time, and I could have just _said_ something.”

“It’s a very ‘you’ way of doing things, at least. Making them far too complicated and dramatic than they needed to be.”

“It’s a skill.”

They fell quiet for a moment, and eventually Bokuto’s hands went still. Akaashi blinked in disbelief when he realised the ace had fallen asleep on his arm.

He shook him and called his name, but Bokuto refused to be roused.

Akaashi gave up and sat down to contemplate the future where he had such a high maintenance boyfriend as Bokuto. It was going to be a handful, definitely, but so worth it.

He’d had enough past experience with Bokuto’s ludicrousness, after all. It would be just the same as before, only with more hugging and kissing.

Akaashi tilted his head onto Bokuto’s and closed his eyes, trying to find the energy to be concerned about Bokuto’s parents waking up and finding their child had vanished into the night.

Somehow, he couldn’t find it. He relaxed and let himself live in Bokuto’s moment, because it had made the ace so happy.

Akaashi would never relinquish this feeling of making Bokuto happy. He was sure it made himself at least a hundred times happier too.

He fell asleep there with a smile on his lips, overjoyed with the idea that Bokuto wouldn’t be leaving him after all.


End file.
